Call for Papers

This sub-theme has two components of organizing critical contemporary issues: (1) markets from valuation and human attachments; (2) organizational efforts towards political peace-making. We will run sessions of these two parts independently over six sessions of three and three whereas we also try to find some links in one session.
 
(1) On the one hand, it explores human attachment to objects as a critical yet understudied driver of contemporary markets (Cochoy et al., 2017). Consumers in advanced digital economies are often saturated with high-quality products and excessive, overflowing information. This has led producers and sellers to experiment with new methodologies and new theories that go beyond traditional Consumer Research to understand what it is that attaches people. A focus on the ‘arts’ of orchestrating attachments and sentiments offers a different perspective. How do people get lured by, or attached to products, objects and services? Is attachment to products different from attachment to other things? Does getting attached to market things (products, services, commodities) differ from other forms of human-object relations? Values may originate in aesthetic, ethical and economic dimensions as worth, which come in transitive styles across networks (Beckert, 2016). Moreover, Callon (2017) has suggested that three different kinds of attachment devices are at work in markets. There are attachment devices designed to ‘listen’; to ‘co-produce’ and finally to ‘hook’ or even addict consumers where bodies and affects are heavily engaged in an economy of sentiments (Zelizer, 1994).
 
Thus, this part revisits market mechanisms from the point of view of ties between actors and objects as a way to open the “iron cage" again, employing knowledge from the interconnecting fields of valuation, market studies and cultural economy. There are many empirical sites, moments, processes, and devices (Berthoin Antal et al., 2015) and many theoretical and methodological approaches that will enrich this enquiry, exploring topics including moments and continuity, sites of attachments, cognition, transformation, and scope economies, exit and detachment processes, political programs and legitimation.
 
(2) The other part of the sub-theme will focus on organizing peace. Peacebuilding refers to the organized efforts towards establishing “social justice through equal opportunity, a fair distribution of power and material resources, and an equal protection by and in the face of the rule of law” (Chetail & Jütersonke, 2015, p. 1). It extends beyond the conflict time and space to address “political and social fragmentation, political disaffection, the alienation of citizens from the political system” (Stavrakakis et al., 2016, p. 59), which can potentially lead to violent outbursts. We need to organize peace in the face of growing nationalist and xenophobic far-right movements (Stavrakakis et al., 2017) that exploit resentments resulting from growing inequalities under neoliberalism (Fotaki & Prassad, 2015) and undermine efforts for solidarity with the disadvantaged groups in society, such as the refugees (Cholewinski & Taran, 2009).
 
There is a growing knowledge base especially in the disciplines of international relations, political science, law and sociology with which organizational scholars showed limited engagement (for example, see Maoz et al., 2002; Maoz et al., 2004; Desivilya & Yassour-Borochowitz, 2008; Cruz, 2014). Yet, they occupy a unique position to contribute to these debates and create genuine impact by mobilizing their knowledge on identity, memory, group dynamics, power, labour, gender, bureaucracy, NGOs, etc. Thus, we explore contributions that approach ‘organizing peace’ from a variety of angles and theoretical perspectives.

 

References

On Markets from Attachments

• Beckert, J. (2016): Imagined Futures: Fictional Expectations and Capitalist Dynanics. London: Harvard University Press.
• Berthoin Antal, A., Hutter, M., & Stark, D. (eds.) (2015): Moments of Valuation. Exploring Sites of Dissonance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Callon, M. (2017): “The Devices of Attachment.” In: F. Cochoy, J. Deville, & L. McFall (eds.): Markets and the Arts of Attachment. London: Routledge, 180–195.
• Cochoy, F., Deville, J., & McFall, L. (eds.) (2017): Markets and the Arts of Attachment. London: Routledge.
• Zelizer, V.A. (1994): The Social Meaning of Money. New York: Basic Books.

On Organizing Pease from Grassroots

• Chetail, V., & Jütersonke, O. (2015): Peacebuilding. A Review of the Academic Literature. White Paper Series No. 13. Genova: Peacebuilding Platform.
• Cholewinski, R., & Taran, P. (2009): “Migration, Governance and Human Rights.” Refugee Review Quarterly, 28 (4), 1–33.
• Desivilya, D.S., & Yassour-Borochowitz, D. (2008): “The case of CheckpointWatch: A study of organizational practices in a women’s human rights organization.” Organization Studies, 29 (6), 887–908.
• Fotaki, M., & Prasad, A. (2015): “Questioning neoliberal capitalism and economic inequality in business schools.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, 14 (4), 556–575.
• Maoz, I., Bar-On, D., Bekerman, Z., & Jaber-Massarawa, S. (2004): “Learning about ‘good enough’ through ‘bad enough’: A story of a planned dialogue between Israeli Jews and Palestinians.” Human Relations, 57 (9), 1075–1101.
• Maoz, I., Steinberg, S., Bar-On, D., & Fakhereldeen, M. (2002): “Palestinian–Jewish encounters in Israel.” Human Relations, 55 (8), 931–962.
• Stavrakakis, Y., Katsambekis, G., Nikisianis, N., Kioupkiolis, A., & Siomos, T. (2017): “Extreme right-wing populism in Europe: revisiting a reified association.” Critical Discourse Studies, 14 (7), 420–439.
• Stavrakakis, Y., Kioupkiolis, A., Katsambekis, G., Nikisianis, N., & Siomos, T. (2016): “Contemporary Left-wing Populism in Latin America: Leadership, Horizontalism, and Postdemocracy in Chávez’s Venezuela.” Latin American Politics and Society, 58 (3), 51–76.
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